As QPR prepare to head to Bolton this weekend LFW looks at the controversial last meeting between these sides, the career of Dave Clement and a high scoring meeting from 1969.
Bolton Wanderers 2 QPR 1, Saturday March 10, 2012, Premier League
A shambolic refereeing display from Martin Atkinson and a typical late lapse in concentration sent QPR spinning to what felt like a crucial defeat at the Reebok Stadium the last time these sides met. Locked in a battle to stay in the Premier League neither team could afford to lose but the nerves seemed to be weighing heavier on Bolton early in the game and QPR started much the brighter. They should have taken the lead when Clint Hill’s powerful header from a corner was scooped out from behind the line by goalkeeper Adam Bogdan but neither Atkinson, nor his assistant Bob Pollock noticed the ball had crossed the line. Atkinson was farcically then chosen to go to the European Championships that summer as a goal line judge. The incident unnerved the officials who then suffered a complete collapse in their performance. Darren Pratley, allowed to foul his way through the entire game with no comeback, opened the scoring despite being offside throughout the build up and that was then equalised immediately after half time by Djibril Cisse who was also two yards offside when the ball was played. Joey Barton didn’t cover himself in glory with his tracing for Klasnic’s heartbreaking late winner but twice in injury time Atkinson denied the visitors blatant penalty kicks. Ultimately though it was the Londoners who had the last laugh, staying up at Wanderers expense on the last day of the season when Owen Coyle’s team could only draw at Stoke.
Bolton: Bogdan 7, Steinsson 6, Wheater 6, Ream 5, Ricketts 6, Reo-Coker 5, Mark Davies 7, Pratley 6 (Klasnic 80, -), Miyaichi 7, Ngog 6 (Muamba 89, -), Petrov 6 (Eagles 71, 6)
Subs Not Used: Jaaskelainen, Knight, Kevin Davies, Sordell
Booked: Pratley (foul), Wheater (foul)
Goals: Pratley 37 (assisted Petrov), Klasnic 86 (assisted Miyaichi)
QPR: Kenny 6, Onuoha 6, Ferdinand 5, Hill 6, Traore 6 (Taiwo 79, -), Barton 5, Diakite 6, Derry 5 (Buzsaky 79, -), Wright-Phillips 4 (Mackie 80, -), Cisse 7, Zamora 7
Subs Not Used: Cerny, Gabbidon, Bothroyd, Young
Booked: Onuoha (foul), Diakite (foul)
Goals: Cisse 48 (assisted Wright-Phillips)
QPR 0 Bolton 4, Sunday August 13, 2011
With the long discussed takeover by Tony Fernandes not yet complete QPR were left to open their first Premier League season in 15 years with a squad assembled on the shoestring budget provided by Flavio Briatore and paid a heavy price as Bolton ran riot. QPR predictably lost injury prone Kieron Dyer four minutes into his QPR debut but were arguably the better team until first half injury time when Gary Cahill curled a spectacular opening goal into the top corner from outside the area. After half time it was embarrassingly one sided. Danny Gabbidon fell over a low Chris Eagles cross and diverted the ball into his own net before Ivan Klasnic and Fabrice Muamba got in on the act. Clint Hill added insult to injury with a stoppage time sending off for headbutting Martin Petrov who’d tormented QPR all afternoon.
QPR: Kenny 6, Dyer - (Orr 7, 5), Gabbidon 5, Hall 5, Hill 5, Derry 6, Faurlin 5, Taarabt 6 (Buzsaky 72, 6), Campbell 5, Smith 5 (Helguson 72, 5), Bothroyd 6
Subs: Murphy, Connolly, Agyemang, Ephraim
Booked: Hill 52 (foul)
Red Cards: Hill 90 (violent conduct)
Bolton: Jasskelainen 6, Steinsson 7, Knight 7, Cahill 8, Robinson 6, Muamba 7, Reo Coker 5 (Pratley 83, -), Eagles 6 (M Davies 81, -), Petrov 8, Klasnic 7 (Blake 86, -), K Davies 8
Subs: Bogdan, Alonso, Gardner, Wheater
Booked: Cahill 76 (foul)
Goals: Cahill 45 (unassisted), Gabbidon 67 (own goal, assisted Eagles), Klasnic 70 (unassisted), Muamba 79 (assisted Klasnic)
Bolton 3 QPR 1, Tuesday October 31, 2000, First Division
Bolton’s new Reebok Stadium has been an unhappy hunting ground for QPR since it was opened – four visits, four defeats. The most comprehensive of those was a Tuesday night visit to that particular corner of Lancashire back in 2000. Rangers, quite remarkably when you look at the team, actually took the lead three minutes before half time when a young Peter Crouch struck for Gerry Francis’ men. In typical style though they couldn’t hang on for three minutes and Gudni Bergsson equalised before the break. Bolton took control just after the hour with two goals in three minutes from Robbie Elliott and Michael Ricketts. Bolton were working their way back to the Premier League at the time while Rangers were all set for relegation to the Second Division and administration.
Bolton: Jaaskelainen, Bergsson, Fish, O’Kane, Elliott, Frandsen, Nolan, Gardner, Farrelly, Rickets (Rankine 79), Hansen
Subs not used: Banks, Richardson, Barness, Passi
Goals: Bergsson 45, Elliott 62, Ricketts 65
Bookings: Ricketts
QPR: Harper, Breaker, Carlisle, Broomes, Rose, Morrow (Koejoe 72), Peacock, Langley (Wardley 81), Warren, Connolly, Crouch
Subs not used: Miklosko, Ready, Perry
Goals: Crouch 42
Bookings: Carlisle
Head to Head >>> Bolton wins 14 >>> Draws 3 >>> QPR wins 9
2011/12 Bolton 2 QPR 1 (Cisse)
2011/12 QPR 0 Bolton 4
2000/01 QPR 1 Bolton 1 (Ngonge)
2000/01 Bolton 3 QPR 1 (Crouch)
1999/00 QPR 0 Bolton 1
1999/00 Bolton 2 QPR 1 (Peacock)
1998/99 Bolton 2 QPR 1 (Rowland)
1998/99 QPR 2 Bolton 0 (Gallen, Sheron)
1996/97 Bolton 2 QPR 1 (Morrow)
1996/97 QPR 1 Bolton 2 (McDonald)
1995/96 QPR 2 Bolton 1 (Osbourn, Impey)
1995/96 Bolton 0 QPR 1 (Dichio)
1982/83 Bolton 3 QPR 2 (Gregory, Sealy)
1982/83 QPR 1 Bolton 0 (Stainrod)
1981/82 QPR 7 Bolton 1 (Flanagan 2, Gregory, Micklewhite, Fenwick, Allen, Stainrod)
1981/82 Bolton 1 QPR 0
1980/81 Bolton 1 QPR 2 (Stainrod, Flanagan)
1980/81 QPR 3 Bolton 1 (Langley, Burke, Neal)
1978/79 Bolton 2 QPR 1 (Goddard)
1978/79 QPR 1 Bolton 3 (Harkouk)
1970/71 QPR 4 Bolton 0 (Marsh 3, Leach)
1970/71 Bolton 2 QPR 2 (Venables 2)
1969/70 QPR 0 Bolton 4
1969/70 Bolton 6 QPR 4 (Leach, Bridges, Clement, Marsh)
1967/68 Bolton 1 QPR 1 (R Mogan)
1967/68 QPR 1 Bolton 0 (Wilks)
Dave Clement >>> QPR 1965 to 1979 >>> Bolton 1979 to 1981
The tragic story of one of QPR’s very best players is well known to the older generations of fans at Loftus Road. Younger fans probably know more about Dave’s son Neil, who always received a warm welcome when he arrived at QPR with West Brom, despite his history as a Chelsea youth player.
Dave Clement was a product of the QPR youth set up, a youngster in the system at Loftus Road when Rangers lifted their one and only major trophy of their history – the 1967 League Cup. Clement made his debut that season, appearing for the first time in April in a 5-1 home victory against Scunthorpe United, after signing pro terms in 1965. Rangers were also Third Division champions that season, the first and only time a team has done that particular double in English football.
Clement made 34 appearances in the Second Division a season later and went on to become the regular QPR right back during the halcyon days of the 1970s when a talented QPR team came within a whisker of beating Liverpool to the First Division title.
He missed just six matches between 1970 and 1974. He won four England caps, starting for the first time against Wales in March 1976, and made 476 appearances for Rangers during his time here, including a start and a goal in the crazy 6-4 loss to Bolton that we’ll reflect on in a moment. The R’s sold him onto Wanderers in 1979 for £170,000 following their relegation to the Second Division.
He went onto play for Fulham and Wimbledon but tragically committed suicide in 1982 while suffering from depression brought on by a broken leg which looked set to end his career. Will always be regarded as one of the QPR greats.
Others >>> Heidar Helguson, Bolton 2007-2009, QPR 2009-2012 >>> Danny Shittu, QPR 2001-2006, 2011-2012, Bolton 2008-2010 >>> Les Ferdinand, QPR 1987-1995, Bolton 2004-2005 >>> Peter Reid, Bolton 1974-1982, QPR 1989-1990 >>>John Gregory, QPR 1981-1985, (manager) 2006-2007, Bolton 1990 >>> Sammy Lee, QPR 1986-1987, Bolton (manager) 2007
Bolton 6 QPR 4, Saturday November 29, 1969
The QPR team of 1969/70 wasn’t one that could be left unsupervised for too long. An attack capable of putting six through Blackpool and four through Norwich, Villa and Huddersfield played in front of a defence that worked enthusiastically to keep things interesting for the paying public. At Bolton’s old Burnden Park ground in November they recorded the club’s highest scoring defeat of all time – a record that stands to this day.
Rangers had been a First Division team the year before for the first time in their history, Alec Stock guiding them to the League Cup as a Third Division side in 1967 followed by successive promotions but he left without ever selecting a First Division team at Loftus Road. Our first top flight campaign was something of a disaster as we worked our way through two permanent and one caretaker manager and won just four league games all year.
Experienced player Les Allen took on the managerial reigns after Tommy Docherty’s brief and ill-fated first spell with the club but has since made no secret of the fact that he wasn’t keen on the role. At Burnden Park, with snow on the ground, Rangers gave a second start to Mike Ferguson who had signed from Aston Villa to strengthen the side and they did hit four goals here.
Mick Leach, Dave Clement, Barry Bridges and Rodney Marsh were all on the score sheet for the visitors but Bolton, then managed by club legend Nat Lofthouse, hit six of their own through John Manning 2, John Byrom 2, George Taylor and Terry Wharton to win the game.
Having won nine of the first 13 matches that season QPR contrived to lose four and draw five of the final ten and finished ninth in the Second Division. Bolton finished sixteenth.
QPR: Spratley, Clement, Harris, Hazell, Hunt, Venables, Leach, Ferguson, Bridges, Clarke, Marsh.
Highlights >>> QPR 0 Bolton 4, 11/12
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Pictures – Action Images